Forest Industry Carbon Assessment Tool

The Forest Industry Carbon Assessment Tool™ (FICAT™) was developed by NCASI with financial support from the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group in 2008. Based on the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) Carbon Footprint Framework, FICAT assists in the development of cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-grave carbon footprints of forest-based companies. Footprints developed using FICAT include consideration of manufacturing emissions, carbon storage impacts, upstream emissions, and end of life effects.

The last update of FICAT was Version 1.3.2.7, released in 2012 and designed to run on the Windows 7 operating system. Since 2012, due to a lack of funding, FICAT has not been updated.

Because FICAT may not be compatible with new operating systems and because of concerns about the vintage of some of the default values in FICAT, NCASI has stopped allowing downloads of FICAT from the FICAT website (FICATmodel.org). The FICAT model will continue to be available, however, to those making specific requests to NCASI, and NCASI will continue to assist NCASI Member Companies using FICAT. In addition, where appropriate, NCASI will help companies migrate to other more widely used tools.

It is possible that FICAT will be updated in the future, but until then it will be made available only on request.

Questions about FICAT and other tools used for carbon footprinting may be directed to Adam Costanza (gro.isacn@aznatsoca).